CAN'T BLAME THIS ONE ON ME

July 22, 1924

I had put a note under Heinie's door at the Chase last night to let him know I'd be staying over at Roy's so they wouldn't think I got kidnapped again, but to tell you the truth I was so mad at the team for shoving my friends out of the clubhouse yesterday I didn't care if they thought I was dead.

Roy and his family took good care of us again, and because it was incredibly hot and muggy this morning we sat out on their shady front porch for breakfast, something every other person in "the Ville" was doing. It was great. If someone on one porch ran out of butter or syrup for their flapjacks they'd yell across and send one of their kids over to borrow some.

Anyway, Roy and us got talking about the dumb Jim Crow laws all over again, and then about how good some of those colored players are that play around the country. Roy's brother Thomas asked us in Chicago on our last trip out here whether we wanted to watch some of them play sometime, but there wasn't enough time. Thomas actually knows Oscar Charleston and Rube Foster, and Roy told us that a friend of an old girlfriend's brother-in-law knows Judy Johnson, the star third baseman of the Hilldale Daisies, the champs of the Eastern Colored League who play in Darby which is right next to Philadelphia!

This got us thinking all over again, and before you knew it we had this nutty idea about collecting enough money to set up a game between some colored players and the Phillies in one of their off-days, just so they could eat their own jim crow. Benny thought it was the best idea anyone had ever had, and promised to start "working on it" right away.

With that hot little secret on my mind, I took a trolley back over to Sportsman's Park to get our bats ready for game time. Jimmy Ring and his luckless 4-12 record was going against Leo Dickerman, and we were about due for a win against these guys. But there's something about brutal hot weather that turns everyone into ghouls, and by the time I had the bats set up in the dugout my wool jersey felt like it weighed two tons and nobody looked like they wanted to play. There were so many people in the stands waving fans it seemed like the whole ballpark was going to fly off.

Then things started off great for the Cards. Ray Blades tripled with two outs in the first, and Fletcher decided to walk Hornsby on purpose. Not a bad idea, except when Sunny Jim Bottomley is up next, and I started grumbling to myself by the bat rack that this wasn't going to work. One of the coaches overheard and told me to shut up and sure enough, Bottomley cracked the next pitch out of the park and we were down 3-0.

We couldn't do a thing with Dickerman for four innings, then squeezed out single runs in the 5th and 6th with the help of a Cooney error and Ford sacrifice fly. The energy came back in our dugout, maybe because by then everyone was pouring cold water on their heads between innings, and we finally started hitting. Holke and Cy singled and Wilson walked to load our bases with two outs in the 7th. Mokan then shot one down the left field line to score everybody and put us ahead 5-3!

In the 8th, Harper, Holke and Cy all singled to make it 6-3, and Wrightstone yelled at me to get his bat. Russ was having a lousy day with no hits in four tries and I think he was still mad because I was friends with a colored because he'd never been this nasty to me before. When he lined out on the first pitch he came back in the dugout, shoved me out of the way and said "See what you did to me by bringing that coon in the club house?" I stood right up in his face, said "Don't you ever call my friend that!" and Heinie and Ford had to get between us to keep a fight from starting. Fletcher told me to go back to the hotel and cool off, as if that was possible. Instead I got dressed and went up in the stands and found some shade.

And it was just in time to see the Cards wake up. A Hornsby double and three singles off Ring and Steineder made it 6-5. Hi Bell shut us down in the 9th, and then the bottom of the 9th happened. Quickly. Specs Toporcer singled, Douthit doubled, Ray Blades tripled them both in, and we'd exploded to death with a 7-6 loss. To quote Wrightstone a little differently, that's what they get for kicking me out of the dugout.

Back at the hotel later where it was too hot to eat, Heinie showed me how to cool off the sheets by dumping ice buckets on them. He felt bad about the way Wrightstone was treating me, but said not to worry because him and his Havana Grit bunch were probably out drinking and cavorting all night and they wouldn't remember a thing by morning. Doesn't mean I won't.

Good night, reader-people!
—Vinny

PHI 000 011 310 - 6 13 1
STL 300 000 022 - 7 13 2

Other National League games today:

ROBINS 7-14-2, at PIRATES 4-10-1
The Robins crush Meadows for the first five innings but Art Decatur walks the ballpark in the 3rd to let the Bucs back in. Fournier homers off Babe Adams in the 9th, though, to seal the game and set up a certain loss for the Reds.

GIANTS 8-20-2, at REDS 5-10-0 (11 innings)
That loss you ordered because the Pirates went down? Here you go. Cincy almost pulls it out, taking a 3-1 lead to the 8th only to have Hack Wilson tie it with a homer. Down 4-3 in the 9th, Cliff Lee smacks a pinch homer, but Jakie May is terrible and the Giants pummel him in the 11th with two singles and two straight triples from Frisch and Wilson. For eight of the last nine days now, the Pirates and Reds have matched each other's wins and losses.

at CUBS 3-8-1, BRAVES 2-6-0
You'd think Pete Alexander would take care of the Braves easy, but a Frank Gibson two-run homer in the 9th makes it a close one. The big news is that it's Boston's tenth homer of the year in their 94th game, and their first one in almost two months. Gadzooks.

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Tuesday, July 22
Pittsburgh Pirates	59	31	.656	—
Cincinnati Reds	56	39	.589	5.5
New York Giants	53	39	.576	7
Brooklyn Robins	54	40	.574	7
St. Louis Cardinals	48	45	.516	12.5
Chicago Cubs	42	51	.452	18.5
Philadelphia Phillies	36	59	.379	25.5
Boston Braves	25	69	.266	36